During the oral argument before the California Supreme Court, on the lawsuit challenging Proposition 8 , there was one brief shining moment of agreement. Justice Ming Chin asked whether it might not be best if the state got out of the marriage business entirely and just issued civil union permits—...

Natural Law (Continued from Part I) Critics of the Bible often point to ancient history as a method of discrediting the authenticity of the Bible. Specifically they claim ancient history refutes the notion that the Bible is the divinely inspired Word of God. Whereas Christians and Jews might point t...

Rand and This Moment - Ramesh Ponnuru - The Corner on National Review Online Rand and This Moment [Ramesh Ponnuru] Sales of Atlas Shrugged are surging. It has been a good long while since I read the book, but my bet would be that the current economic downturn will reduce rather than increase the cir...

There’s been a lot of talk lately about free market types “going Galt” to protest current economic policies. This provokes my friend Jeff, and many others, to say “Go ahead, be my guest.” They’re right that few productive people are really going to venture off int...

Susan has got your number . . . but how did you get hers? “Um, is this Kapiti Cheeses? I want some of that chewy cheese you guys make … you know, the one with the herbs in it? Can I just order 200g? Can you ring me back on 06 (unintelligible)�. “Hi, Ezibuy. I want the top on p6 of your catal...

George Bush was not exactly a philosopher-king. But one thing he reportedly did honestly struggle with was the executive order dealing with stem cell research. Not so Barack Obama . Today he was “excited� to sign the executive order which will reverse Bush's order and “vigorously� put the fe...

Apparently some pundits have become upset about the Watchmen movie. In case some of you think that this is a "superhero" movie, let me disabuse you of that mistake. One: Its based on a VERY dark graphic novel. If you haven't read it, hit up your neighborhood comic book store. (I recommend Dave's Com...

Yesterday I noted an exchange between Will Wilkinson and Mathew Yglesias after Wilkinson, in a post which is uncharacteristic of him, seemed to descend into repeating the right wing stereotype of liberal beliefs. Hilzoy later posted her own objections to Wilkinson’s post. The section which  s...

The second personage of the Libertarian Chick Triumvirate is the grand duchess of liberty herself, Ayn Rand—who was a contemporary of fellow founder of modern libertarianism Rose Wilder Lane , whom I featured a couple days ago. The downside of Ayn Rand is the debating society, known as libertarian...

So the Democratic National Committee has embarked on a campaign to make Rush Limbaugh the face of the Republican Party. Now, I’m not a Republican (and certainly not a Democrat), so in one sense, I don’t care, but what they’ve decided to do run a contest for people to send in 10-wor...